Jeremy Collier, A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage

From the start there were those, besides Pepys with his questionable morality, who were disturbed by the scenes portrayed on the newly opened London stages.  In 1698, after the flamboyant period of Charles II when the monarch (William III) was no longer a daily presence in and champion of the theatre, Jeremy Collier expressed his outrage at plays that were still popular.  The impact of the "smut" on the "ladies" was at the heart of Collier's objections.

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CHAP. 1. The Immodesty of the Stage.

IN treating this Head, I hope the Reader does not expect that I should set down Chapter and Page, and give him the Citations at Length. To do this would be a very unacceptable and Foreign Employment. Indeed the Pas∣sages, many of them, are in no Condi∣tion to be handled: He that is desirous to see these Flowers let him do it in their own Soil: 'Tis my business rather to kill the Root than Transplant it. But that the Poets may not complain of In∣justice; I shall point to the Infection at a Distance, and refer in General to Play and Person.

Now among the Curiosities of this kind we may reckon Mrs. Pinchwife, Horner, and Lady Fidget in the Country Wife; Widdow Blackacre and Olivia in the Plain Dealer. These, tho' not all the exceptionable Characters, are the most remarkable. I'm sorry the Author should stoop his Wit thus Low, and use his Un∣derstanding so unkindly. Some PeoplePage  4appear Coarse, and Slovenly out of Po∣verty: They can't well go to the Charge of Sense. They are Offensive like Beggars for want of Necessaries. But this is none of the Plain Dealer's case; He can afford his Muse a better Dress when he pleases. But then the Rule is; where the Motive is the less, the Fault is the greater. To proceed. Jacinta, Elvira, Dalinda, and Lady Plyant, in the Mock Astrologer, Spanish Friar, Love Trium∣phant and Double Dealer, forget them∣selves extreamly: And almost all the Characters in the Old Batchelour, are foul and nauseous. Love for Love, and the Relapse,strike sometimes upon this Sand, and so likewise does Don Sebastian.

I don't pretend to have read the Stage Through, neither am I Particular to my Utmost. Here is quoting enough unless 'twere better: Besides, I may have occasion to mention somewhat of this kind afterwards. But from what has been hinted already, the Reader may be over furnish'd. Here is a large Collecti∣on of Debauchery; such Pieces are rarely to be met with: 'Tis Sometimes pain∣ted at Length too, and appears in great Variety of Progress and Practise. It wears almost all sorts of Dresses to engage the Fancy, and fasten upon thePage  5Memory, and keep up the Charm from Languishing. Sometimes you have it in Image and Description; sometimes by way of Allusion; sometimes in Disguise; and sometimes without it. And what can be the Meaning of such a Repre∣sentation, unless it be to Tincture the Audience, to extinguish Shame, and make Lewdness a Diversion? This is the natural Consequence, and therefore one would think 'twas the Intention too. Such Licentious Discourse tends to no point but to stain the Imagination, to awaken Folly, and to weaken the De∣fences of Virtue: It was upon the ac∣count of these Disorders that Plato ba∣nish'd Poets his Common Wealth: And one of the Fathers calls Poetry, Vinum Daemonum an intoxicating Draught, made up by the Devils Dispensatory.

I grant the Abuse of a Thing is no Argument against the use of it. How∣ever Young people particularly, should not entertain themselves with a Lewd Picture; especially when 'tis drawn by a Masterly Hand. For such a Liberty may probably raise those Passions which can neither be discharged without Trou∣ble, nor satisfyed without a Crime: 'Tis not safe for a Man to trust his Virtue too far, for fear it should givePage  6him the slip! But the danger of such an Entertainment is but part of the Objection: 'Tis all Scandal and meanness into the bargain: it does in effect de∣grade Human Nature, sinks Reason into Appetite, and breaks down the Distinctions between Man and Beast. Goats and Monkeys if they could speak, would express their Brutality in such Lan∣guage as This.

To argue the Matter more at large.

Smuttiness is a Fault in Behaviour as well as in Religion. 'Tis a very Coarse Diversion, the Entertainment of those who are generally least both in Sense, and Station. The looser part of the Mob, have no true relish of Decency and Honour, and want Education, and Thought, to furnish out a gentile Con∣versation. Barrenness of Fancy makes them often take up with those Scanda∣lous Liberties. A Vitious Imagination may blot a great deal of Paper at this rate with ease enough: And 'tis possible Convenience may sometimes invite to the Expedient. The Modern Poets seem to use Smut as the Old Ones did Machines, to relieve a fainting Invention. When Pegasus is jaded, and would stand still, he is apt like other Tits, to run into e∣very Puddle.

Page  7Obscenity in any Company is a ru∣stick uncreditable Talent; but among Women 'tis particularly rude. Such Talk would be very affrontive in Conversa∣tion, and not endur'd by any Lady of Reputation. Whence then comes it to Pass that those Liberties which disoblige so much in Conversation, should enter∣tain upon the Stage. Do the Women leave all the regards to Decency and Conscience behind them when they come to the Play-House? Or does the Place transform their Inclinations, and turn their former Aversions into Pleasure? Or were Their pretences to Sobriety elsewhere nothing but Hypocrisy and Grimace? Such Suppositions as these are all Satyr and Invective: They are rude Imputa∣tions upon the whole Sex. To treat the Ladys with such stuff is no better than taking their Money to abuse them. It supposes their Imagination vitious, and their Memories ill furnish'd: That they are practised in the Language of the Stews, and pleas'd with the Scenes of Brutish∣ness. When at the same time the Cu∣stoms of Education, and the Laws of Decency, are so very cautious, and re∣serv'd in regard to Women: I say so very reserv'd, that 'tis almost a Fault for them to Understand they are ill Used.Page  8They can't discover their Disgust without disadvantage, nor Blush without disser∣vice to their Modesty. To appear with any skill in such Cant, looks as if they had fallen upon ill Conversation; or Managed their Curiosity amiss. In a word, He that treats the Ladys with such Dis∣course, must conclude either that they like it, or they do not. To suppose the first, is a gross Reflection upon their Virtue. And as for the latter case, it entertains them with their own Aver∣sion; which is ill Nature, and ill Man∣ners enough in all Conscience. And in this Particular, Custom and Conscience, the Forms of Breeding, and the Maxims of Religion are on the same side. In other Instances Vice is often too fashi∣onable; But here a Man can't be a Sin∣ner, without being a Clown.

In this respect the Stage is faulty to a Scandalous degree of Nauseousness and Aggravation. For

1st. The Poets make Women speak Smuttily. Of This the Places before mention'd are sufficient Evidence: And if there was occasion they might be Mul∣tiplyed to a much greater Number: Indeed the Comedies are seldom clear of these Blemishes: And sometimes you have them in Tragedy. For Instance.Page  9The Orphans Monimia makes a very im∣proper Description; And the Royal Le∣onora in the Spanish Friar, runs a strange Length in the History of Love p. 50. And do Princesses use to make their Re∣ports with such fulsom Freedoms? Cer∣tainly this Leonora was the first Queen of her Family. Such raptures are too Lascivious for Joan of Naples. Are these the Tender Things Mr. Dryden says the Ladys call on him for? I suppose he means the Ladysthat are too Modest to show their Faces in the Pit. This Entertainment can be fairly design'd for none but such. Indeed it hits their Pa∣late exactly. It regales their Lewdness, graces their Character, and keeps up their Spirits for their Vocation: Now to bring Women under such Misbeha∣viour is Violence to their Native Mo∣desty, and a Mispresentation of their Sex. For Modesty as Mr. Rapin observes, is * the Character of Women. To repre∣sent them without this Quality, is to make Monsters of them, and throw them out of their Kind. Euripides, who was no negligent Observer of Humane Nature, is always careful of this Deco∣rum. * Thus Phaedra when possess'd with an infamous Passion, takes all imagina∣ble pains to conceal it. She is as re∣gularPage  10and reserv'd in her Language as the most virtuous Matron. 'Tis true, the force of Shame and Desire; The Scandal of Satisfying, and the difficulty of parting with her Inclinations, disor∣der her to Distraction. However, her Frensy is not Lewd; She keeps her Modesty even after She has lost her Wits. Had Shakespear secur'd this point for his young Virgin Ophelia, the *Play had been better contriv'd. Since he was resolv'd to drown the Lady like a Kitten, he should have set her a swimming a little sooner. To keep her alive only to sully her Reputation, and discover the Rankness of her Breath, was very Cruel. But it may be said the Freedoms of Distraction go for nothing, a Feavour has no Faults, and a Man non Compos, may kill without Murther. It may be so: But then such People ought to be kept in dark Rooms and without Company. To shew them, or let them loose, is somewhat unreasona∣ble. But after all, the Modern Stage seems to depend upon this Expedient. Women are sometimes represented Silly, and sometimes Mad, to enlarge their Li∣berty, and screen their Impudence from Censure: This Tolitick Contrivance we * have in Marcella, Hoyden, and Miss Prue.Page  11However it amounts to this Confession; that Women when they have their Un∣derstandings about them ought to con∣verse otherwise. In fine; Modesty is the distinguishing Vertue of that Sex, and serves both for Ornament and Defence: Modesty was design'd by Providence as a Guard to Virtue; And that it might be always at Hand, 'tis wrought into the Mechanism of the Body. 'Tis like∣wise proportion'd to the occasions of Life, and strongest in Youth when Passi∣on is so too. 'Tis a Quality as true to Innocence, as the Sences are to Health; whatever is ungrateful to the first, is pre∣judicial to the latter. The Enemy no sooner approaches, but the Blood rises in Opposition, and looks Defyance to an Indecency. It supplys the room of Rea∣soning, and Collection: Intuitive Know∣ledge can scarcely make a quicker Im∣pression; And what then can be a surer Guide to the Unexperienced? It teaches by suddain Instinct and Aversion; This is both a ready and a powerful Me∣thod of Instruction. The Tumult of the Blood and Spirits, and the Uneasiness of the Sensation, are of singular Use. They serve to awaken Reason, and prevent surprize. Thus the Distinctions of Good and Evil are refresh'd, and the Temp∣tation kept at proper Distance.

Page  122ly. They Represent their single La∣dys, and Persons of Condition, under these Disorders of Liberty, This makes the Irregularity still more Monstrous and a greater Contradiction to Nature, and Probability: But rather than not be Vitious, they will venture to spoil a Character. This mismanagement we have partly seen already. Jacinta, and Belinda* are farther proof. And the Double Dealer is particularly remarkable. There are but Four Ladys in this Play, and Three of the biggest of them are Whores. A Great Compliment to Quality to tell them there is not above a quarter of them Honest! This was not the Roman Breeding, Te∣rence and Plautus his Strumpets were Little people; but of this more hereaf∣ter.

3dly. They have oftentimes not so much as the poor refuge of a Double Meaning to fly to. So that you are un∣der a necessity either of taking Ribal∣dry or Nonsence. And when the Sen∣tence has two Handles, the worst is generally turn'd to the Audience. The Matter is so Contrived that the Smut and Scum of the Thought rises uppermost; And like a Picture drawn to Sight, looks always upon the Company.

Page  134ly. And which is still more extraor∣dinary: the Prologues, and Epilogues are * sometimes Scandalous to the last degree. I shall discover them for once, and let them stand like Rocks in the Margin. Now here properly speaking the Actors quit the Stage, and remove from Fiction into Life. Here they converse with the Boxes, and Pit, and address direct∣ly to the Audience. These Preliminaries and concluding Parts, are design'd to justify the Conduct of the Play, and be∣speak the Favour of the Company. Up∣on such Occasions one would imagine if ever, the Ladys should be used with Respect, and the Measures of Decency observ'd, But here we have Lewdness without Shame or Example: Here the Poet exceeds himself. Here are such Strains as would turn the Stomach of an ordinary Debauchee, and be almost nau∣seous in the Stews. And to make it the more agreeable, Women are Commonly pick'd out for this Service. Thus the Poet Courts the good opinion of the Au∣dience. This is the Desert he regales the Ladys with at the Close of the En∣tertainment: It seems He thinks They have admirable Palats! Nothing can be a greater Breach of Manners then such Liberties as these. If a Man would stu∣dyPage  14to outrage Quality and, Vertue, he could not do it more Effectually. But

5thly. Smut is still more insufferable with respect to Religion. The Heathen Religion was in a great Measure a My∣stery of Iniquity. Lewdness was Conse∣crated in the Temples, as well as practis∣ed in the Stews. Their Deitys were great Examples of Vice, and worship'd with their own Inclination. 'Tis no wonder therefore their Poetry should be tinctured with their Belief, and that the Stage should borrow some of the Liber∣ties of their Theology. This made Mer∣curys Procuring, and Jupiters Adultery the more passable in Amphitrion: Upon * this Score Gymnasium is less Monstrous in Praying the Gods to send her store of Gal∣lants. And thus Chaeraea defends his Ad∣venture * by the Precedent of Jupiter and *Danae. But the Christian Religion is quite of an other Complexion. Both its Pre∣cepts, and Authorities, are the highest discouragement to Licentiousness. It for∣bids the remotest Tendencies to Evil, Banishes the Follies of Conversation, and Obliges up to Sobriety of Thought. That which might pass for Raillery, and Entertainment in Heathenism, is detesta∣ble in Christianity. The Restraint of the Precept, and the Quality of the